MyBrownBaby On the Road: Living It Up In Hilton Head, Savannah, and Charleston

My family couldn't really afford vacations when my brother and I were growing up, but when I got a job and some vacation
days, I made a point of doing something special with my free time. When I was living in the New York area, I was partial to Martha's Vineyard and Sag Harbor, for their history and spirit and beauty. And because, well, I'm kind of a vacation snob. If it wasn't in the North or out of the country, I wasn't going.

But now that my family and I are down here in Georgia, we've become partial to discovering the beauty of the South. This past week, we took the kids to the white sand beaches of Hilton Head, the incredible squares of Savannah, and the breathtaking, historic Charleston. Here are a few highlights...

HILTON HEAD...
is a charming coastal community in South Carolina, just over the Georgia border. The island is pristine, with lots of lush green space, pretty beaches and architectural beauty—even the building that houses the local KFC is correct! You can go bike riding along the island-long bike paths, you can visit the 129-year-old lighthouse and the island-famous restaurant, The Salty Dog, or you could do what we did, which was spend a majority of our time swimming, lounging and getting really chocolatey on the beach.

We did make a pit stop at The Carolina Coastal Museum to check out a kid-friendly seminar on alligators. We learned everything we ever needed to know about the little (big) buggers—you can not poke their eyes out, they can only run after you for 12 ft. before they get too tuckered to eat you, and the teeth, not the tail, are the most dangerous part on the scaly reptile—and the girls actually got to touch the little one below before we hiked through the park, laughing, joking, and taking cover from the blistering sun. The sun sure makes for a beautiful sunset, though.

SAVANNAH...
is one of my favorite places to be. Its history is absolutely amazing—Sherman presented it to President Lincoln as a Christmas present after he slashed through and burned down much of Georgia. Savannah is, without question, a jewel of the south. It's 22 squares (parks), incredible centuries-old homes, plethora of galleries, and amazing waterfront River St., make it well worth the blisters you'll get on your feet just exploring its streets. When we go, we always take a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city, stroll the Riverwalk, get fresh lemonade and taffy from Savannah's Candy Kitchen, and hit the soul food buffet (and search for ghosts) at The Pirate's House.

This time, though, we also took a tour of The First African Baptist Church, home to the country's oldest black congregation. Constituted in 1777 and built by the hands of slaves, the church was part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. We touched the air holes in the flooring—drilled to look like a tribal symbol instead of a makeshift ventilation system meant to give air to the 4 1/2-foot crawl space that hid runaways. From the crawl space, runaways would steal away through underground tunnels leading to the Savannah river. We also sat in the original pews built by slaves, each marked by the tribal symbols of the Africans who made them. Below, Mari is standing in front of a statue on River St. that was dedicated to Savannah's slaves; we were told that where that statue stands is exactly where the tunnels released the runaways onto waiting ships. Simply incredible.

CHARLESTON...
is where you will find me when I'm old and gray. It is absolutely breathtaking—the history, the housing stock, the shoreline, the sailboats, cobblestone streets, the porches, the garden-filled courtyards. What was not to love? We ate Charleston blue crabs, visited the Old Slave Mart, once the epicenter of the South's slave trade, shopped for sweetgrass baskets in a former slave market (they're made from sweetgrass, indigenous to the coast of South Carolina and West Africa, and created exclusively by the descendants of the Gullah islands), and dreamed about one day making a home there. Too beautiful.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. And now, back to reality—home sweet home!